The Hanged Man Tarot Card: Meaning of Arcanum XII, Symbols

In brief: number, names and keywords

The Hanged Man is the twelfth card, with the same number and the same name in Marseille and in Rider-Waite. Twelve is a number of cycles (twelve months, twelve signs): we are at the end of a full turn before the great change of the next card.

Do not be put off by the name: this “hanged man” is suspended by one foot, not hanged by the neck. The image shows him calm, sometimes smiling. In one old Sicilian tarot, however, he is hanged by the neck, which shows that the variants are real.

Keywords: suspension, change of perspective, letting go, pause, willing sacrifice, waiting.

The image in the Marseille tarot

In Marseille, a man hangs upside down, tied by one foot to a wooden crossbar carried by two tree trunks whose branches have been cut off. His hands are tied behind his back, so that his arms and head form a triangle with the crossbar. His free leg is folded behind the other, forming an upside-down “4”.

He wears colourful clothes, often red, blue and yellow, and his hair hangs freely. His face is calm. In some decks, purses or small bags hang from his belt or fall from his pockets. The whole creates a sense of strangeness, but not of suffering.

The image in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the Hanged Man is suspended by one foot from a large T-shaped branch of a living tree. One leg is folded behind the other, his arms are crossed behind his back, and his head is surrounded by a luminous halo. He wears red trousers, a blue tunic and yellow shoes.

The background is a plain blue-grey. The face expresses deep serenity: Waite sees in it a kind of profound contemplation, not suffering. The light around the head is the key element: the one who is suspended sees differently.

Symbolism of the elements in the image

These are the details that come up most often in traditional readings. They are paths for interpretation, not official definitions.

• The head down: turning one's view upside down: seeing things from another angle, questioning one's certainties.
• The tied foot: what holds us back, sometimes by choice: a commitment, a wait, a temporary situation.
• The hands behind the back: the inability to act in the moment: one cannot intervene, one observes.
• The upside-down “4”: the folded leg forms a number upside down, as if to say the usual order is reversed.
• The living tree (Waite): life goes on: suspension is not death. Some see in it the world-tree of several traditions.
• The halo: awakening, the clarity that comes with a change of perspective.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Hanged Man traditionally evokes a pause, a moment when one cannot (or should not) act: waiting, letting go, the freely chosen sacrifice of one thing in order to gain another. It speaks of the possibility of seeing a situation differently, of accepting what we do not control, and of letting things ripen rather than forcing them.

In a spread, it invites you to ask what you would gain by doing nothing for a while, or by reversing your way of seeing things. Several authors stress that suspension is an active choice: the Hanged Man is not a victim, he is smiling.

Reversed: two schools of reading

School 1: the opposite. Reversed, the Hanged Man speaks of stagnation, endless waiting, a feeling of pointless sacrifice, a victim role, or stubbornness in refusing to change one's perspective.

School 2: a blockage. The necessary pause is refused or impossible: one acts too quickly, without taking the step back the situation requires. The card then invites you to slow down. Several tarot readers, moreover, only read the upright cards.

In everyday areas of reading

The tarot does not say what will happen: it offers images to reflect on. Here, in symbolic terms, is what this card may evoke depending on the theme of your question.

• Personal reflection: pause, a change of outlook, patience, letting go. Possible question: what would I see differently if I looked at this situation upside down?
• Relationships: putting a decision on hold, giving the other person time, seeing a conflict from another angle. The card does not ask you to sacrifice yourself at your own expense.
• Work: a waiting period, a project on hold, a career change under consideration, a collaboration in which one concedes a point to move forward. Symbolically, a time of preparation.
• Money: a decision postponed, a voluntary renunciation of a purchase, waiting for better information. It predicts nothing and does not replace the opinion of a financial adviser.

Combinations with neighbouring cards

A card is rarely read on its own: its neighbours shade its meaning. Here are some common pairings, to be taken as starting points.

• Strength: gentleness and letting go: two ways of not forcing things.
• The Hermit: withdrawal and suspension: a time apart to understand better.
• The Nameless Arcanum: suspension and the end of a cycle: letting go of what must go, with perspective.
• Justice: pause and discernment: waiting before deciding.
• The Fool: two cards that leave the usual path: one through momentum, the other through stopping.

To learn how to combine cards, try the three-card spread. To place this card among the 22 major arcana, see our guide to the major arcana.

Keyword of the day, question and practice

Keyword of the day: Letting go. For the day, identify one thing you cannot control and decide, just for today, to leave it in suspense.

Question to ask yourself: What would you see differently if you looked at this situation upside down?

Writing (10 minutes). Choose a situation that worries you. Describe it once, then rewrite the same situation from the point of view of someone else, or “from above”. Note what changes in tone.

Short meditation. Sit down, gently tilt your head forward, arms relaxed, and breathe. Imagine letting a worry slip out of you. Slowly return to an upright position and notice what has changed. If you suffer from dizziness or health problems, avoid head-down positions.

History and variants of the card

In medieval Italy, paintings on palace walls showed traitors and fleeing debtors hanging upside down by one foot: a pittura infamante (“defamatory painting”), meant to cover them in shame. The first Italian tarots take up this image: the card was sometimes called Il Traditore (the traitor). In Marseille, the name became “the Hanged Man”, but the man's attitude, calm and without visible shame, changed the meaning of the image.

The occultists of the 19th century read in the image a voluntary sacrifice and a reversal of viewpoint. The comparison with Saint Peter, crucified head down according to tradition, with the Norse god Odin, hanging from the world-tree, or with other initiatory figures, circulates widely, but it is not based on established sources for the tarot. Waite gave him a halo; the Golden Dawn links him to water and to the Hebrew letter Mem.

Variants: the old Sicilian tarot shows him hanged by the neck; modern decks often develop the image of a peaceful man (or woman) in nature. The constant is inversion and calm.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to The 22 Major Arcana, card by card.